


Just the Beginning (Undertale Alternate Universe)

by Miso0w0



Series: After the Prologue (Undertale AU) [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: .w., And Sans, Are You Even Reading This Anymore, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus (Undertale), Did I Spell That Right?, Everyone Needs A Hug, Floccinaucinihilipilification, Gen, Good Chara, Good W. D. Gaster, How Do I Tag, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Don't Even Know, I Made Frisk OP, I can't believe I forgot, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm adding too many tags aren't I, Kinda, More complicated than it seems, Nonbinary Chara (Undertale), Nonbinary Frisk (Undertale), Nonbinary Kris (Deltarune), Oh, Other, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", Sad Backstory, Secrets, The Void is OP, There Are More Coming!, Time Travel, Undertale Spoilers, Well?, Why Did I Write This?, Worry not!, but i try, does anyone even read this, everyone suffers, not really - Freeform, updates irregularly, what is this madness, why did i do that - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miso0w0/pseuds/Miso0w0
Summary: After almost - but not quite - finishing a genocide run, you reset and free the monsters from their underground confinement. You and the monsters are slowly adjusting to your new life on the Surface. When traveling through the Underground to get some important keepsakes, you and your friends stumble upon some strange files in the True Lab. They mention a failed science experiment and a monster portrayed as "WDG". Who could it be? Suddenly, the Determination Extractor activates and sends all of you into a parallel reality…Warning: This AU contains Undertale spoilers, and it might require some prior knowledge of Undertale. I'm sorry, some stuff might not make sense, but you can read it anyways. You have been warned.
Relationships: Chara/Asriel (Undertale, Frisk/Chara (Undertale)/ Kris (Deltarune), No Non-Canon Romantic Relationships, Platonic Chara/Sans (Undertale), Platonic Frisk/Sans (Undertale), Sans/Papyrus (Undertale), Sans/Papyrus/Asriel/Chara (Undertale), Sans/Papyrus/Asriel/Chara/Frisk (Undertale), Undyne/Alphys (Undertale), W. D. Gaster & Papyrus & Sans, Yet ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) - Relationship
Series: After the Prologue (Undertale AU) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1693426
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	1. One RESET Ago

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do NOT own Undertale OR Deltarune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you relive old mistakes

_it’s a beautiful day outside._

False sunlight streamed through the windows, casting lengthy shadows of the menacing pillars across the floor of the Last Corridor. Outside, birds were singing, flowers were blooming.

It would have been a beautiful day if the Underground hadn’t been devoid of all but six presences.

One was a monster with a sad, lonely SOUL, another with a SOUL that cracked long ago, one being without a SOUL at all, just an empty shell where it used to be. Two humans, one with a determined SOUL, weighed down by HATE, LOVE, and EXP, and another who was long gone but was still too determined to pass on.

And one mysterious SOUL within it all, hiding in plain sight.

Of course, some monsters had escaped the inevitable demise that follows a meeting with the new human by hiding or using their knowledge of the human’s capabilities to evade falling to stained weapons, but a great many had drifted away as dust in the wind. Many battles had led up to this moment.

The final “enemy”, the last “Boss Battle”, if you would.

Shrouded in the shadows cast by the walls of the Last Corridor, two figures faced each other.

On one side of the corridor, a steel object glinted, clenched in the figure’s right hand. On the other side, a flash of blue and yellow light came from an unknown source.

A golden, four-pointed star twinkled near the entryway. How could something so innocent aid such a malicious intent?

Words were exchanged.

Two souls were pulled into an encounter.

On one side, a pure red SOUL, shadowed by something- no, some _one-_ who told the other to stand down, their voice soft but stern, calm but threatening.

On the other side, a lone skeleton stood. He smiled that lazy smile of his despite knowing that he was the last line of defense.

Despite knowing that he was the only one who truly understood what had happened to the Underground’s savior.

The only monster in the entire Underground who _remembered_ that shy little kid who would never even _think_ about hurting anyone. That merciful pacifist who ran away from fights with a smile on their face. Who never gained LOVE, gaining love instead.

The skeleton sighed and looked down at his fuzzy gray slippers with the same smile but the addition of a sad look in his dark eye sockets, illuminated only by two pinpricks of light.

The smaller figure, the one with the red soul, started to pace back and forth, eyes fixed on their target the whole time.

Suddenly, without a warning, the smaller figure lunged forward, knife outstretched, eager to finish the fight with just their first strike. Thousands of reloads after their first try, they knew every move their prey could take, and the skeleton had long since accepted his dust to be smeared on the hunter’s small hands.

His left eye flashed blue and yellow as he thrust his gloved hand out towards his opponent. A wall of floating dragon skulls was summoned.

As long as he went down fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Undertale or Deltarune
> 
> OoOOooOohHhHHH! We're finally getting STARTED!


	2. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you think about your new past

_As you hurtle towards the smiling skeleton in his blue hoodie, you feel your face stretch into a wild grin. Bones protrude from the ground in front of you. You plow straight through one, shards of bone fly through the air,_ _KARMA_ _slowly ticks away at your 92 HP. You run closer and closer to your target, ignoring the numerous hits you are taking. You bring your knife down, trusting it to pierce its mark and-_

You wake up, breathing heavily, cold sweat coating your back.

 _Just a dream,_ you tell yourself, _this time, it’s different._

As you struggle to calm your panting, you look around, not registering where you are.

 _Oh._ Your new room.

A week has passed since Asriel destroyed the barrier and all of your, um, _monstrous_ friends were set free. Now, you live with Toriel in this comfortable little house that you had somehow managed to snag on the outskirts of Ebott City, near the forest that you had run through before discovering the cave and falling into the Underground. A kind old man had been willing to sell the house - _your_ new house - for a ridiculously cheap price. The other monsters were slowly accommodating to the new environment.

Alphys and Undyne built a house into the cliffside. You grin to yourself. You say ‘built’, but it was actually just Undyne punching her way into the cliff until a wide area was constructed, Alphys nervously following her new girlfriend after she agreed to live together. Sans and Papyrus have somehow managed to find a house that looks exactly like their old residence back in the Underground.

Or maybe it was just the skelebros using their mysterious magical abilities.

You huff and cross your arms over your chest, closed eyelids facing the ceiling. Over a hundred resets and you still haven’t discovered the full extent of their abilities.

The two skeletons live at the very edge of the forest, just a five-minute walk from your new house. The other monsters have settled in the woods with Asgore until proper arrangements could be made.

You sigh. You never did finish that genocide run, but the memories still haunt you. The first monster you dusted in your tyrannical run was that Froggit. The first _real_ challenge - it hadn't been too hard, but it was a challenge nonetheless - had been Toriel. But you had killed her. The next challenge, Papyrus, then Undyne, Muffet, Mettaton. They had all collapsed into a small pile of dust. Oh, and don’t forget all of the monsters in between.

All of them had fallen to your hands.

Chara had been pleading - no, begging you to stop since that first monster, to have MERCY. Their red, DETERMINATION-filled eyes had pooled with a lake of fear that kept growing after you killed their mom.

This was when you had learned that Chara has a deep relationship with all of the monsters. They knew all of their names. All of the options you could take that would trigger a reaction. Chara could read even the most unexpressive Moldsmal. However, out of all of the monsters you had dusted, you had seen Chara get the most upset when you killed Papyrus. That had been when they started to succumb to the hatred, slowly growing insane with helplessness. One by one, everyone you met drifted away in the wind.

Then, you had met Sans.

Out of all of the monsters, he had been the craftiest, the slyest, the most strategic. He had been a cheater. By that time, the EXecution Points, Level Of ViolencE, and HATE that had accumulated within you had almost full control over your actions. Not that you _wanted_ to stop it.

Chara had started protesting against your actions with renewed force, even though they had stopped a long time ago. It seems like your partner admired both skeleton brothers. But why? Chara had died over 4,000 years ago, and you are pretty sure that the skelebros hadn't been around that long. Mental note to look into that.

Again and again, you pressed the FIGHT button. Again and again, you missed, growing frustrated and careless. Again and again, you were met with that black screen, white words scrolling over it: GAME OVER. However, even that taste of a real challenge vanished over time. Sans’ attacks became easy to read, no longer a surprise.

However, just as you were about to deal the finishing blow, after your 2,471st LOAD, a voice in the back of your mind told you to right your wrongs, to RESET. You had ignored Chara’s voice, killing every monster you met.

However, this new voice could not - _would_ not - be ignored.

When you tried to continue your attack, a strange power stopped you and reloaded SAVE after SAVE, not letting your hit land. The odd thing was, you knew that it was your own SOUL who was reloading, even though you knew you wanted the smiling comedian to dust. 

In the heat of one of the battles, you vaguely recall hearing Chara chuckle and say,

_'Best not to kill their favorite. You don't want to make them mad, unless you want to have a **b a d t i m e . . .** '_

Finally, you relented and fully RESET the world. You chose to run a pacifist timeline. You had befriended every monster before, but you had stopped saving everyone after a few RESETs. At the end, after Asriel broke the barrier, you refused to use a TRUE RESET. Instead, you took Flowey’s advice and let life move on.

You smile as you remember the young monster’s kind words before you departed the Underground for the first time in what felt like forever. 

_“Don’t kill and don’t be killed, alright?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.
> 
> What do you think of it so far? I'm kind of excited to see this story through. If you have any suggestions or corrections, feel free to tell me!


	3. Late, As Always

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you finally remember what you are supposed to do

You sigh and heave yourself out of bed. You approach the corner of your room. There, a small, four-pointed star flashes quietly. Its soft glow illuminates your face and casts a long shadow across the floor of your room. You hold your hand out like you have done every morning since traversing the Underground. 

_*Knowing that the sun will continue to rise each and every morning… It fills you with_ _DETERMINATION_ _._

  
You release the breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

 _'Chara's not mad,'_ you think. You briefly wonder why. After all, you forced them to watch your every move as you dusted monster after monster. They haven’t talked directly to you since your release to the surface, but you are certain that they just need some time to adjust.

You cross over to your closet to slip out of your pajamas and grab your dark blue cargo shorts and matching oversized blue sweater, the two purple stripes appearing indigo in the dim light as the first rays of the rising sun crawl out from behind Mount Ebott. While tugging on your socks, you glance out the window to be met with a brilliant view.

Frost creeps over the glass and snow falls softly against the window. It reminds you of Snowdin, except the snow on the Surface somehow feels colder and wetter than the snow in the Underground.

The Underground..? You feel as if you are forgetting something important.

You push open the creaky door while still pulling your sweater over your head, causing you to trip over the protruding carpet and hit the ground with a muffled _FWUMP._ You pop right back up, your sweater fully on, your short hair disheveled and covering your closed eyes.

As you tiptoe into the hallway, you slow down by the door to Toriel’s room. You hear soft snores through the closed door. You stop and relax, letting the rhythmic sounds wash over you.

You glance at the clock next to the empty bookshelf. 6:21. You gasp in surprise, remembering what you and your friends had planned to do today, silently scolding yourself for making them wait this long.

You rush through the last few feet of the hallway as quietly as you can and take the stairs two at a time, careful to jump over the creaky steps.

You grab your new, blue backpack from the coat rack in the corner of the kitchen, throwing Monster Candy, Popato Chisps, Instant Noodles, Hot Dog..?s, Hot Cats, a few jugs of Spider Cider, and whatever other snacks that could fit in the large, empty bag. From the refrigerator, you grab the cling-wrapped version of Toriel’s famous Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie. After a moment’s thinking, you stuff a roll of bandages and a small pocket knife in the front pocket, along with a few chocolate bars.

Grabbing your Cell Phone from the counter, you stuff the full backpack into your full-er Dimensional Box B, race through the living room, grab your brown combat boots from its spot on the shoe rack and hurriedly slip them on, almost tripping over your own feet after you kick open the door.

A blast of cold air rushes in, bringing a few snowflakes with it. You shiver but manage a grin upon seeing the short, smiling skeleton who was waiting for you outside, leaning against the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale (or Deltarune)
> 
> I'm not actually going to update this much. I just had a lot of writing that I did beforehand. 
> 
> .w.


	4. Everywhere, But Nowhere...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you hide secrets from the Judge.

The older skeleton brother’s gray hood is pulled up over his skull, half-covered in snow, just like the rest of him. His hands are in his pockets and his eyes are closed, his chest slowly rising and falling. Little puffs of white appear in front of his face every time he exhales. You grin mischievously and knock on the wall next to you two times.

“who’s there?” Sans asks without opening his eye sockets. You respond with  
‘scold’.

“scold who?” The skeleton’s smile grew bigger. He already knows what you are going to say next. ‘ _Scold_ out here, isn’t it?’ you whisper. Sans opens his eye sockets and watches as you burst into giggles.

“ _ice_ to see you, kiddo. what took you so long?” Sans winks. The warm glow of his eyelights tempts your grin to widen.

You rush to him, trying to ignore the cold that lances through you as you hug the snow-covered skeleton. You feel him tense up underneath your arms, and you quickly let go of him and step back, blushing.

Out of everyone you know, Sans is the only one who hates physical contact, with the exception of his brother and the occasional hand-holding. He’s been like that for as long as you can remember.

You stare at the ground. An awkward silence falls over you two.

Tentatively, you look up to fully examine the skeleton.

His eye sockets are blank, devoid of the two lights that usually reside in that space. The blue of his jacket is barely visible under the snow poff he has become. All around your house, the world is covered by a blanket of freshly fallen snow. The snowing has ceased to a few stray snowflakes, despite what you had seen out your window ten minutes prior. Despite the unrelenting cold, he is still wearing those black shorts with a single white stripe running down the front of each pant leg. His socks are half-covered by the hem of his not-so-short shorts. And finally, his light gray slippers are as ratty and dirty as any other day.

It takes a few more (long) seconds, but he relaxes, his eyelights returning and his shoulders sagging.

"you made me wait for three hours in a snowstorm,” Sans begins, not looking or sounding the least bit angry. “it stopped a little over five minutes ago. of course, it didn’t bother me. After all, nothing can get _under my skin_ , right?” You giggle and jokingly ask him what he is doing up before lunch, smiling mischievously. It is a truly rare sight to see Sans up so early, especially since he just implied that he had been awake since three in the morning, maybe even before that.

“i wouldn’t miss this for all the ketchup in the world,” he replies. You arch your eyebrow.

“okay, fine. paps woke me up and told me to wait for you.” He grins lazily.

But the grin is sincere. That's what matters. You force yourself to laugh in a poor attempt to hide the guilt building up behind your closed eyelids.

He shouldn’t trust you. ~~You don’t deserve his trust.~~ If he ever finds out the truth, what you’ve done, how much pain you’ve caused, he will definitely hate you. You slap on a forced smile and try to convince yourself that it is enough for the Judge.

Most likely not.

He could probably see right through each and every lie that you have ever told and that you would ever tell. But maybe he’ll let it slip this one time.

You shiver as a cold breeze blows by, jerking you from your thoughts. The skeleton monster huffs and pushes away from the wall, not bothering to shake the snow off. Even standing at his full height, Sans is only a few inches taller than you, which isn’t much. Your body is around seven years old, but you have seen way more than an average adult.

Your smile wavers a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What have you done this time?
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Undertale (or Deltarune)


	5. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sans falls asleep
> 
> .
> 
> ..
> 
> ...
> 
> OR DOES HE?

“you okay, kiddo? you look chilled to the bone.” You giggle despite your chattering teeth and snap a pun back at him. You tell him that it is snow problem, that Winter is your favorite ski-son. Sans laughs, bright and clear, so unlike the Sans from most of the previous runs.

You wonder if he even knows what skis are.

“c’mon. you’ve kept us waiting long enough.” He reaches out a hand and you grab it.

You know that he doesn’t need to have physical contact with whatever he’s shortcutting with, but you had asked him to allow you to hold his hand due to the unsettling feeling that hits you every time you shortcut with him.

Not even a second later, the two of you shift into a second of weightlessness and then the strange chill of the Void. As Sans leads you through the inky black expanse, you wonder for the millionth time how he is able to access the strange world.

You have only heard scattered rumors of the World Between Worlds, the gap - or the Void - between the timelines, universes, realities, etc. The Void always filled you with a sense of unease, like something- no, some _one_ in here knows more than it should.

Or maybe it’s just your over-imaginative mind trying to find a plausible reason why you can’t tell up from down in this strange world.

Sans, however, always seems perfectly at home in the empty land, maybe even more so than when he is in his own house with Papyrus. You cock your head as you wonder why.

You don’t bother looking around. You know that you will not see anything.

Another wave of weightlessness combined with that odd chill and you are out.

You look around and realize that you are at the cave that leads to Asgore’s castle, where the monsters first exited the Underground. The whole journey through the Void felt like an hour, but in truth, it had only been a fraction of a second.

You peer at the looming jaws of the cave. It is harder to recognize since snow is piled all around it. You are anxious to go inside, as you know that it will not magically cure the chill, but it is warmer than standing knee-deep in the snow.

“THERE YOU ARE, FRISK!” You smile and turn around to respond to the younger skelebro’s voice despite flinching at first. Unlike his shorter brother, Papyrus’ voice demands attention. Odd… Out of the corner of your eye, you see Sans wince. But why? It’s not like the loud, boisterous voice is anything new to him. As if he knows you are suspicious of him, the short skeleton turns to Paps.

“hey, bro. happy enough? can i take a nap now?” Without waiting for an answer, Sans rests his chin on his sternum and starts to snore gently as he drifts off into sleep in record time, still standing upright. For once, Papyrus takes no heed. You jump into his open arms. The younger skelebro wraps you into a hug. You ask Papyrus how he is doing.

“I’M FINE, THANK YOU. WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR YOU!” You look over his shoulder and find the rest of your friends. Undyne and Alphys are standing together in the front, while Monster Kid - or MK for short - stands in the back with Napstablook.

“What took you so long, Punk?” Undyne asks. Papyrus lowers you to the ground. You shoot a guilty look at the fish warrior and tell her you almost forgot that you had planned to travel back through the Underground, revisiting and reliving old memories along the way. When you had left the Underground with your friends, nobody had taken much with them.

The monsters living in the woods with Asgore decided not to come before they settled in permanently. Toriel did not come because she decided that she had to discuss living arrangements with Asgore and the other monsters.

“A-are we all set?” Alphys stutters. She has become less shy as life progresses forward, but old habits take time to change. You shake your head vigorously. You are still waiting for two more, you tell your friends.

“Who?” MK asks. You grin and shake your head again, more slowly this time. Just then, you hear a voice say “OOH YES!” Napstablook turns to the speaker with a big smile on his face.

“Happy! You came!” Napstablook shouts. Well, he says in an average speaking voice. This is the loudest you have ever heard him speak. He is looking at a light pink ghost with hair covering his right eye.

“How could I miss it, Blooky?” Happstablook has shed his corporeal form as Mettaton, the famous ‘robot’ with a soul, and taken on his natural form as a ghost for this special occasion. He still possesses some uncanny similarities to Mettaton EX such as the hair that is hiding his glowing right eye, but other than that, he is completely unrecognizable as the Underground’s celebrity.

The show has been postponed thanks to the numerous papers and files needed to fit the show into a television channel, and the monsters did not have any way of watching it, so Happstablook has a lot of time to catch up with his cousins.

The ghosts residing in Mad Dummy and Ruins Dummy are living with Asgore and the others, helping out however they could as the temporary architects with a few other monsters who have some knowledge in the field. Though they had been invited, they are both too busy to come.

Actually, a lot of monsters had received an invitation, but most of them had refused or turned it down politely. The government had decided that they didn’t need an ambassador until the (currently) classified news about the monsters gets released, so you have a lot of spare time on your hands to play around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what's going on right now
> 
> T^T HALP MEH


	6. Ready to Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which your last friend arrives.

“Can we go now?” MK asks, shivering not from the cold, but from the childish excitement that he unfailingly possesses through each and every reset. You smile. Not yet, you say. 

“WHO IS LEFT?” Papyrus asks, tilting his head slightly to the right, an action that he must have picked up from the dog monsters that he once lived with back in Snowdin. You smile.

"Well, Frisk, we’ll be waiting over there, okay?” Undyne grabs Papyrus and Alphys around their waists and, with a squeak from both of her passengers, jumps to the other side of the clearing in one big leap.

"WOAH! Undyne, can you show me how to do that?” MK exclaims as he races to them, tripping only once. Happstablook and Napstablook exchange a look and follow. Right after they left, a small voice rang out.

“Um...” You smile down at the small golden flower who, like you, is shivering in the frosty morning light.

_'_ _Asriel,’_ Chara breathes. Your smile grows wider after you hear your partner speak for their first time since the prince of monsters broke the barrier. You see their figure manifest next to their brother, blurry and faded from the days that it was not used. You take a quick glance around, but nobody seems to see Chara, as expected. _‘Someone’s happy,’_ you think to Chara. They smile sadly.

“oh, hey asriel.” You jump as Sans suddenly appears at your side. On the other side of the clearing, none of your other friends seem to have noticed his disappearance. Chara jumps too. Their red eyes widen and their whole body tenses up as they whip around, only to relax as they realize it was only Sans.

He flashes that lazy smile of his. Asriel, the former prince of monsters - currently in the form of Flowey, the golden flower - nervously smiles back. Thoughts race through your mind.

How did Sans find out that Asriel had arrived? Hadn’t he been sleeping? Wait, how does he know that Flowey is Asriel? You shake your head to clear your whizzing thoughts as you settle on the simplest answer. Sans is Sans. Why are you surprised?

Chara giggles and raises an eyebrow at you. You glance behind you, where the rest of your friends are still talking, still unaware of the new arrival. You nod discreetly at your partner and shrug. They turn back to Sans and Asriel.

Maybe you just imagined it, but it seems as if Sans’ perpetual smile grew just a tiny bit bigger as he examines the small flower. You let out a sad sigh. Millions of RESETs have convinced you that no one else could see Chara. Still, you wish that anyone other than you can see them.

Upon transforming back into a flower, Asriel retained some chips of a few certain monsters’ SOULs; they wouldn’t leave the empty shell where his SOUL used to reside no matter how much the prince of the Underground protested. The monsters who lost those bits didn’t feel any different.

Now, Asriel had about one-eighth of a true SOUL, allowing him to experience feelings. It should be one-eighth. Still not enough to transform into the lovable goat kid, but it’s a start.

And an end, too.

You told Sans about Asriel’s, um, _condition_ beforehand, assuming from countless past RESETs, and subtle hints that Sans and Asriel’s relationship is… complicated, to say the least. You don’t know what led up to it or the details, but you hope that the two will work out any problems they might have. Sans and Asriel have much in common.

They are both so hard to read and hold so many secrets… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God help me
> 
> Sorry this updates so oddly! .w.  
> Currently, I'm trying to fix the mistakes in the previous chapters. Hang in there.


	7. Entering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a new old character appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. ;w;  
> 

“Please don’t call me by that name,” the flower whispers, “I don’t deserve it. Not yet. Just Flowey is fine.” He turns away, blushing. Sans shrugs.

"if you say so, _bud_.” Sans turns his head up to face the sky. “the moon seems closer to the sky today.”

The short skeleton’s voice is melancholic as he says the strange phrase. You furrow your brow. What did he mean by that? Flowey looks shocked for a moment, but then he adopts a small smile. He glances to his right as if checking for something. After a moment’s searching, he stops and turns back to you and the smiling skeleton. A mischievous smile plays its way across his face, acting as if Sans never said those strange words.

“Nice to see you didn’t _leaf_ your puns behind in the Underground,” Flowey says. Now it’s your turn to look shocked. Sans’ smile grows even bigger. You hear footsteps crunching on the snow behind you.

“FLOWEY? I DIDN’T KNOW THAT YOU AND SANS WERE FRIENDS!” Papyrus exclaims, just noticing that the small golden flower is present.

“hey, bro,” Sans says, raising his hand in greeting, then turns to Flowey and whispers loudly, “ _weed_ better think up some more puns later.”

“I HEARD THAT, SANS! AREN’T YOU TWO A LITTLE TOO OLD FOR THESE SHENANIGANS?” Papyrus huffs.

“you can never _grow_ too old for puns,” Sans replies. “plus, flowey isn’t that old.” Both of the brothers suddenly grow quiet. Flowey looks down. After an awkward silence, pounding footsteps are heard crunching through ice.

“Great! Flowey’s here!” Undyne roars. She turns to Alphys and asks her in a much quieter voice, “who’s Flowey again?” Alphys’ face is as white as the snow around her.

“I- he- you-” she stammers. You smile reassuringly and tell Alphys that you had already worked things out with Flowey and that everything was fine. The flower in question shrinks in on himself, somehow managing to look smaller than before. Alphys nods but still casts wary glances at the small flower from time to time.

“Wait,” MK said, a look of intense concentration on his face. “Why do I feel like we’re forgetting something?”

“OH, RIGHT! I CAN’T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT!” Papyrus rushes behind a snow-covered tree and, after a few seconds, pops out of the other side, carrying a brown package with black markings all over it. He proudly presents the package to you. Chara finally drifts away from their brother and hovers over the package. ‘What’s that?’ they ask. ‘Dunno,’ you think, knowing that Chara will hear your thoughts.

“We h-hope you like i-it,” Alphys stutters, turning away to hide her blush. You take the package from Paps.

The brown paper is taped neatly. Upon closer inspection, the black markings on the paper are actually many, many signatures. You locate all of your friends, along with every monster you can think of. And a few you have never heard of. Even Flowey is on there. Let’s see. Woshua… Froggit… Tsunderplane… The whole Tem family, including Bob… Onionsan… Wait, how did Onionsan get out of the underground? Did they grow legs and walk away? Wait. They already have eight legs. Could Onionsan walk with those legs? You thought they could only swim. Oh, well. Whatever.

You move on, scanning the names on the brown paper. Strangely, you discover a signature that only consists of only a single ‘G’. You frown. Grillby, Gerson, Gyftrot, and Glyde had already been located. Who was this monster? You shrug off the mysterious feeling. Probably some shy monster from New Home or something. You didn't explore much of the Underground's capitol in your journey.

“We spent SO much time, walking around, telling people to sign it… YOU BETTER LIKE THE GIFTS, PUNK!” Undyne roars. You grin and reassure her that you will definitely love it. You repeat the promise to the rest of your friends. ‘What are you waiting for?’ Chara sounds excited. ‘Open it!’ You carefully pull off the tape, making sure that it doesn’t stick to the brown paper. Two soft items fall out of the neatly wrapped paper and onto the snow. You gasp. However, you make sure to lovingly fold the brown paper into a neat little square and tuck it into Dimensional Box A before squatting down to pick up the gifts.

Upon doing so, you squeal in delight. One of the gifts is a blue jacket with a gray hood, like Sans’. You pull it on, grateful for the warmth. Three sizes too big, just like you like it. The Delta Rune is embroidered proudly above your heart using a golden thread. You find a pair of soft gray gloves in the pockets. Once you tug them on, it surprises you to discover that the fabric is waterproof despite the soft, delicate texture. With the flick of his hand and a little blue magic, Sans flips the gray hood over your eyes, making you giggle. You pick up the other item, a red-orange scarf like Papyrus’, but with a major difference.

You hear Chara whisper a small ‘wow’.

Sewn with great care onto the whole length of the scarf are the outlines of several pictures that depict your journey through the Underground. It is most likely Toriel who embroidered both the jacket and the scarf.

The first picture is a bed of golden flowers, sewn using the same color thread as the Delta Rune on the hoodie. It symbolizes the bed of golden flowers where Toriel first found you. You can feel the soft petals under your head now, cushioning your sore body. You frown slightly. To this day, you are unsure how you survived both that fall and the fall into the Dump. However soft flowers are, they shouldn't be able to save a child who fell from that distance. Oh, well. You blame it on your DETERMINATION.

Next, there is a recreation of the door out of the ruins, made with purple thread this time. You remember your mom’s soft fur tickles your nose as you relive her gentle embrace, even after all this time.

After that is a Cinnamon Bunny. Your mouth waters at the sight of the very realistic needlework. Cinnamon Bunnies are made and sold exclusively by the Snowdin shopkeeper. Brown thread.

For Waterfall, there’s a blue echo flower. Just looking at it makes you want to sit down next to one and listen to its recorded story.

Next up is a miniature version of the Core View, made using a dark gray. Hotland. You think you can feel Hotland’s searing heat blasting against your face.

After the Core View is the door in which you had to pass through before ENCOUNTERing Mettaton, in the Core itself. You recall the feeling of steeling yourself for the last stretch of the journey before New Home.

After that door is a window. One of the windows in the Last Corridor, to be exact. The gold thread is used there, too. You shiver. You can’t help but see the red of the scarf swim onto the window, staining the glass with blood.

Finally, on the edge of the scarf, there is a red heart, bloodred, darker than the red-orange fabric of the scarf. You know it symbolizes your SOUL. The heart was the only part of the scarf that isn’t just an outline; it is “colored” in.

Paps helps you wind the scarf of memories around your neck. It is made out of the same fabric as the gloves: sturdy but soft, waterproof but comfy. You beam up at your friends, wearing your new attire. You thank them all, then you turn to the city behind you and yell the thanks out at the world.

Chara smiles and pats your head. Your friends smile even wider than Chara.

“welp, let’s go. at this rate, we can’t search through the entire of the underground if we were given a year,” Sans concludes. Papyrus, Flowey, MK, Napstablook, Happstablook, Undyne, and Alphys all turn his way.

You grasp the skeleton’s hand as he shrugs and flashes that completely relaxed smile at your friends. You tilt your head and grin. Chara floats next to you, their elbow resting on your head, and smiles at your friends.

For a brief second, you see someone else. They are floating upside down next to Chara, their legs crossed, a faint smile playing across their lips as they take in the monsters in one sweep. Their smile widens. Then, they are gone. Your own smile drops a bit as you remember that you still need someone else’s forgiveness. It’s a miracle enough that they allowed you to stay after the previous timeline. Their trust will be harder to regain than Chara’s. In your dreams, you still hear the screams, the cries of betrayal. Your gaze lowers to the ground.

 _‘No one else knows,’_ you tell yourself, _‘no one else can see, no one else can remember. It’s just the three of us… And maybe Flowey.’_ Undyne’s voice jolts you out of your thoughts and into reality.

“Sans… Willing- no, wanting to do work?” Undyne’s face is twisted into the most bizarre way, closely mirrored by the rest of the crew. You try and fail to suppress a giggle. “Now that’s a new one on me.”

“well, are we going or not?” Sans asks. He squeezes your hand, turns on his heels, and starts forward into the cave. Before descending into the Underground yet again, you take one last look back at the sleeping city. In a few minutes, Ebott City will awaken, going on with their usual routines. You have the strangest feeling that you won’t be back for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I gave up on the schedule. I was watching Hamilton the other day. I like King George. .w.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to give suggestions, corrections, advice... All that good stuff!


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